California state Senate votes to increase minimum wage to $10 per hour

SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - Minimum wage-workers in California would earn $10 per hour under a bill passed Thursday by the state Senate and expected to clear the Assembly later on Thursday, although that higher rate would not go into effect until 2016 under a compromise deal. The bill, which Governor Jerry Brown said he will sign, would increase the minimum wage for hourly workers from its current $8 per hour to $9 per hour in July, 2014, and to $10 by January of 2016. No other state pays $10 per hour to minimum wage workers. The current highest is $9.19 mandated in Washington State. (Reporting by Sharon Bernstein)